Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who recently banned the hiring of H-1B visa holders in state agencies and higher education institutions for a year, said the issue is complicated as H-1B is a federal visa program but is used by private employers. In a recent interview, Abbott said Donald Trump's announcement of a $100,000 visa fee was a 'curtailment' for the visa program, but several shocking facts were reported in Texas that H-1B visa holders are being hired even by public schools and universities. Abbott said that though this is a federal program, the state realized that they could do something themselves to freeze H-1B hiring by state agencies.
Abbott said this move was taken to ensure that state agencies were not using taxpayers' dollars to give a visa to some foreign workers. "We have Texans who could be performing these jobs," the governor said.
